Forums, Electrical Systems, Navigation and Safety equipment, Instrument Replacement

waratah912 at 08/01/2011 17:45:21
I’m in the process of replacing the original B & G instruments with Raymarine, the cables leading to the isntruments appear to be completely jammed between the deck and liner. Has anyone got a good solution? Raymarine say I can’t reuse the existing B & G cables, even though there are enough cores if I common up the screen.

chris at 09/01/2011 12:26:22
Two options:

1. Run the cables along the hatch and drill a hole through the lining and deck directly into instrument console. It’s about 2" from the edge of the hatch coaming so doesn’t look too bad.
2. Lube up the new cables and attach to the old wires and pull them through.

Wisdish at 09/01/2011 20:56:35
Which cables on the Raymarine System are you looking to run? Although Raymarine may not advise it, if the existing cables are in good condition there may be no technical reason why they cannot be used but it really will depend on what signals are going down them.

Mark

doug at 11/01/2011 12:01:59
I guess there is a variation in each boat. Mine is as tight as hell and I only just managed to get three wires through, there was no way a BNC connector would go past so I had to remove it an re solder it on the other side (despite the manufacturers saying don’t). The sticking point for me was the change between the front of the cockpit and the cabin top.
I only managed it by cutting an extra 4" access hole in the liner. Like you, at one point I got the wire jammed and it would not go in or out, the extra hole allowed me to fish it out with a wire.
The easy solution might be TackTick, or a main instrument at the chart table with the rest fed as repeaters with a single wire?
Edited: doug on 2011-01-11 12:03:13

George Isted at 11/01/2011 16:02:55
There is a lot to be said for Tacktick wireless kit, four year on and I am still very pleased with it. Sorry I know this doesn’t help….

moongirl at 12/01/2011 22:55:49
Pulling wires from the deck housing through to the nav satation is a problem as the turn from semi-horizontal inside the gap between liner and deck is small plus the underside of the deck moulding is ‘rough’ and creates a lot of friction.
When fitting new wires on Jemanna I used an electricians fibre device (used for fishing wires through conduit) to push some strong string through and it worked well due to there being a removable cover plate in the lining where new winches had been fitted (JR sells the plates which are simply screwed into the lining with self tappers) Having a 2-stage set up was a great help as the string could be pushed through in 2 stages. Its bit of a fiddle but is achievable.
Hope this helps
Colin

Wisdish at 24/01/2011 21:09:59
Having just battled with the same job this weekend, I eventually got the cables through on Star-ven.
I managed to pull a length of string through using one of the obsolete cables, and use this as a mouse for the other cables. I found that this only worked after unscrewing the nuts on one of the cleats on the coachroof – I suspect these may have been slightly compressing the void between the coachroof and the headlining.

nardus at 25/01/2011 09:41:13
Wisdish and waratah912,
I have also the original Mariner coachroof instruments. They still work but I lost the anemometer on the wind vane transducer. If you replace this tranducer, i`m interested in your old one to make my sytem complete again.

waratah912 at 01/05/2011 08:21:08
Well I never got the cables free, so could not run new – no space – currently the new instruments connect to the old cables above the quarter berth and then again under the instrument mounting – full length of Rayamrine cable plus about 4ft of B & G. Working fine, though Raymarine advise against doing this.

Guests at 11/05/2012 12:46:23
chris
Two options:

1. Run the cables along the hatch and drill a hole through the lining and deck directly into instrument console. It’s about 2" from the edge of the hatch coaming so doesn’t look too bad.
2. Lube up the new cables and attach to the old wires and pull them through.


Well you run try those methods of running cables hatch drill a hole through the lining and deck directly into instrument console . i would recommend you to be careful normally there is a variation in each boats .

moongirl at 11/05/2012 19:37:03
Its possible to pull a draw rope through the space between the head lining and the underside of the deck. I tried an electricians f/glass tool but found it was too stiff to make the transition from horizontal to vertical where deck meets bulkhead.. The answer was a stainless steel wire similar but a larger diameter than a bike brake cable – it helps if there are plugs in the headlining where clutches/winches have been retro-fitted as you can run the wire from A-B & B-C. All thats needed is a bit of patience plus possibly opening up the hole in the breakwater.
As a total alternative fit wireless instruments!